Vehicles are subject to a wide variety of tests that are mandated by government regulations and insurance certifications. Tests for energy absorption, durability and passenger protection are conducted on new vehicles. Intrusions into the passenger compartment are analyzed in several tests related to occupant protection in a collision.
Due to the numerous types of collisions, new tests are constantly being proposed to improve occupant safety, pedestrian safety and the safety of other vehicle occupants. A new vehicle test for testing a vehicle is a test entitled “2020 Euro NCAP test” that tests for intrusions and also tests for compatibility of a vehicle design with other vehicles that may be involved in a collision. One measure of compatibility in the NCAP test relates to the homogeneity of the deformation of a Moveable Progressive Deformable Barrier (MPDB) that collides with a moving vehicle. The root cause of poor homogeneity test results is that the bumper beam/crush can punch a deep hole in the deformable barrier. Deeper deformation areas on the movable barrier are undesirable and result in unsatisfactory test results.
Modifications to the design of a vehicle must not only meet currently passenger protection based crash safety requirements, i.e. FMVSS, IIHS, NCAP, EU-NCAP, etc., but also must be made to enhance the additional upcoming requirements of crash compatibility. The crash compatibility requirement is intended to minimize or mitigate the damage to the other vehicle in the event of crash.
The above problems and other problems are addressed by this disclosure as summarized below.